Js_of_ocaml

Overview

Js_of_ocaml is a compiler from OCaml bytecode programs to JavaScript.
It makes it possible to write OCaml programs that run on Web browsers.
It is easy to install as it works with an existing installation of
OCaml, with no need to recompile any library. It comes with bindings
for a large part of the browser APIs. According to our benchmarks,
the generated programs runs
typically faster than with the OCaml bytecode interpreter. We
believe this compiler will prove much easier to maintain than a
retargeted OCaml compiler, as the bytecode provides a very stable API.

Tail call is not optimized in general. However, mutually recursive
functions are optimized:

self recursive functions (when the tail calls are the function itself) are
compiled using a loop.

trampolines are used otherwise.

Data representation differs from the usual one. Most notably,
integers are 32 bits (rather than 31 bits or 63 bits), wich is their
natural size in JavaScript, and floats are not boxed. As a
consequence, marshalling, polymorphic comparison, and hashing
functions can yield results different from usual:

marshalling of floats is not supported (unmarshalling works);

the polymorphic hash function will not give the same results on
datastructures containing floats;

these functions may be more prone to stack overflow.

Contents of the distribution

LICENSE

license and copyright notice

README

this file

compiler/

compiler

examples/

small examples

lib/

library for interfacing with JavaScript APIs

runtime/

runtime system

Debugging programs

To help debugging your programs, use the "-pretty" and "-noinline"
options of Js_of_ocaml. If the bytecode is build with ocaml "-g"
option, Js_of_ocaml will attempt to preserve variable names as well.
You can also use Js.debugger() which inserts a JavaScript debugger
statement. When the JavaScript debugger is active, this statement
pauses the execution of the program.